Environmental Research Gets Short-Shrift in National Autism Research Agenda
By Theresa Wrangham
The public comment period concerning the update of the National Institutes of Health Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee’s (IACC) strategic plan for autism research closed last week. Now, additional information on the upcoming science workshop has been revealed.
The workshop will be held early in September. Its purpose is to engage the scientific community in identifying new research objectives or amendments needed to existing objectives within the strategic plan. Not surprisingly, environmental expertise in the workshop is again limited, which is likely to result in yet another iteration of the strategic plan that lacks cutting-edge research priorities in environmental science. Amid fresh concerns regarding conflicts of interest held by IACC Chair Dr. Thomas Insel and his ability to provide objective leadership, the composition of the science workshops was changed mid-stream, most notably excluding the critical voice of public member and vice president of SafeMinds, Lyn Redwood.
Why is this significant? Initial composition of these workshops called for one federal and one public IACC member from the IACC’s strategic planning subcommittee, of which Ms. Redwood is a member. As it now stands, five panels will address updating research objectives within the strategic plan, and Ms. Redwood will not be on any of these panels, despite her requests to participate. These actions are yet another example of the inherent lack of balance between public member (6) and federal member (12) representation on the committee, which has served to block vital environmental research that relates to the etiology, treatment, and prevention of autism.
Environmental objectives that would greatly improve the plan are:
- Establish use by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of existing data gathered by the National Center for Environmental Health and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; the purpose of this would be to establish reference ranges to be used by physicians and scientists to determine unusually high toxicant exposure levels within individuals and/or groups, identify toxicity levels within the population, and determine environmental changes by tracking exposures over time.
- Conduct body burden studies on individuals with autism spectrum disorders that would investigate the toxic load of toxicants such as mercury and aluminum, their effects alone or in combination, and synergistic effects when combined with other toxins or viral or bacterial agents.
- Expand existing objectives investigating biomarkers and treatments with an added focus on the identification of comorbid disease states (immune system abnormalities, inflammatory bowel disease, oxidative stress, etc.).
- Restore vaccine objectives removed from the strategic plan (these are now recommended in the National Vaccine Advisory Committee review of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office Draft Research Agenda).
- Integrate of other autism-specific vaccine research from the National Vaccine Advisory Committee report.
These measures would provide a cornerstone in understanding the effects of environmental toxins on human health as well as guide the prioritization of future research objectives. It would also provide insight into why biomedical treatments for autism effect positive behavioral outcomes. Investigation of the role of the environment in autism must include vaccine research guided by an independent panel with no conflicts of interest. At February's IACC meeting, Dr. Insel acknowledged that the Department of Health and Human Services has conflicts of interest.
Given the dearth of environmental expertise in the upcoming science workshop and the orchestrated absence of Lyn Redwood's experienced voice, it is crucial that individuals submit their concerns to the IACC and ask for expansion of the environmental agenda within the strategic plan. Please visit our NIH-IACC page for information on submitting your concerns.
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